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Which vegetables and/or fresh herbs should be used when making vegetable stock?

Are there any vegetables/herbs that should be avoided?

Can parts of vegetables that would otherwise be discarded be included (eg. potato peel, carrot tops, onion skins)?

SarahVV
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  • Potato peels tend to absorb flavors, so adding them to a stock will actually make the stock less aromatic. – verbose Feb 11 '17 at 01:44

2 Answers2

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Typically veggies are onions, carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, shallots, etc. Throw in some peppercorns, also, and a Bouquet garni. You can add most other veggies, too, and mushrooms, but avoid adding things that give a strong (bad) flavour after cooked for a long time (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc.).

kevins
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I agree with Kevin.

Also, I highly recommend "Ratio" by Michael Ruhlman. Part 2 of that book is about stocks (broths)...and has an excellent section on vegetable stocks. (There is a technical difference between broths and stocks, but I don't think it matters in this case.)

Stocks are great! Stocks can make the difference between a great meal and a merely good meal.

"Can parts of vegetables that would otherwise be discarded be included (eg. potato peel, carrot tops, onion skins)?"

Yes, as long as they are clean and fresh. Personally I'm not fond of adding potato peels.

hobodave
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wdypdx22
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  • So, should it really be vegetable "stock" instead of "broth" (because there are no bones in it)? – SarahVV Aug 09 '10 at 00:52
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    From Michael Ruhlman's, "The Elements of Cooking".

    "Broths (bouillons) are distinguished from stocks in that a broth is intended to be served as is whereas a stock is the foundation for other preparations." p.74

    So, you can have either vegetable stock or vegetable broth. Neither one will have bones.

    There is actually another post on the site discussing the differences between stock and broth.

     – wdypdx22 Aug 09 '10 at 02:24
  • If you want to get into the whole issue of stocks vs broths, there is a lot of info over on wikipedia.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broth

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_(food)

     – wdypdx22 Aug 09 '10 at 21:18
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    I would disagree with the OP in that I wouldnt add potato peel as it can make your stock very cloudy - though I suspect it depends on the type of potato ( I guess floury types would be worse) – NBenatar Sep 15 '10 at 13:17
  • "Chinese Meatless Cooking" suggests actually using a boatload of bean sprouts for some kinds of stock ... which is not that illogical given that bean cooking liquids are used in some dishes (eg many chickpea curries use the cooking broth as stock). Own experiments resulted in something rather mild (preferrable to one that brings in out-of-place aromas in some cases!) but with - I think- a subtly thickened consistency... – rackandboneman Nov 03 '15 at 12:47